Sacrificial Love

Here’s a story about something that happened at a river town. Now you might not realize, but in such towns where barge or boat traffic is common, to make sure they can get through, you have to constantly dredge the channel. The sand comes up out of the bottom of the river and is then dumped on the side. Now, it makes wonderful places to play because it creates these huge sand hills and kids love to play on them.

There’s really nothing more fun than playing on those huge sand hills, and there’s nothing more dangerous. Because when the sand comes out of the river bottom, it’s wet and it creates a crust on the top of the hills. You can get on the top of them and then all of a sudden, they will collapse and the sand will sink you down inside the hill.

 
Some years ago two brothers didn’t come home for dinner and their bikes were found outside the fence where the dredging had been going on. The family began to search frantically as well as other rescuers for the two brothers. They finally found one. He was buried up to his chin in the sand. Because of the pressure of the wet sand and muck around him he had lost consciousness so they began to dig frantically. When they uncovered him down to his waist he regained consciousness and the family, in hysterics, began to say, “Where’s your brother? Where’s your Brother? Where’s your brother?”

And what he said was, “I’m standing on his shoulders.”

The one brother had sacrificed himself so that the other could live, a remarkable story of courage, tragedy, and unbelievable sacrifice. We are all here today because Jesus Christ made that sacrifice for us all. But you know, when you begin to fully understand that truth, you realize that we too must do our part. We must follow our Lord, wherever that takes us, denying ourselves and embracing the God who loves us.

You know, at times being Christian is not easy. Our faith calls us out of our comfort zones, it calls us out of our ordinary everyday lives to do wonderfully extraordinary things. Yet, to deny ourselves and to pick up that cross and to follow Jesus means that we have to make sacrifices. We, like Jesus, must live lives of sacrificial love. We can’t listen to our own petty concerns or desires or live the way the world seems to tell us. Rather, we must listen for the voice of our God and be receptive to the Spirit of our Savior. To shed this life, give it up to God, and thus find it, to find that life in the cross.

Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?” -Matthew 16:24-26 (The Message)

Ron Trimmer is pastor of Hope United, a new church in Georgetown, Texas. Click here to visit Hope United’s website.